Thanks for showing an interest in working with us. We're always keen to hear from awesome people to join our team. The below should give you a good idea of who we are, who we're looking for and what the process looks like.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Who We Are
We're a small Packrafting Business Based in Queenstown New Zealand (well no shit?). We're not run by a big corporate office or shareholders in some far removed location. We're an authentic small adventure business run by folks who are passionate about the outdoors and doing business in an ethical way. Huw, the owner, has been in the industry for 19 years and set the company up to be the company he wished he was able to work for when he was still freelancing as a guide.
We're committed to leaving the places we work better than we found it and strive hard to make meaningful contributions to our community here too. This is our Regenerative Business Model. Furthermore we aim to be the best Packrafting company in the world committed to pioneering, innovation and leading the way within the industry. Lofty ambitions for a small company.
What we do
The bulk of our work is guided day trips in the Rees Valley and the Matukituki valley in the Mount Aspiring national park. We're continuously introducing exciting and challenging projects to foster growth and keep things engaging, aiming to retain our guides by providing them with clear pathways for improvement. We now have whitewater day trip, instructional courses, overnight trips and (new) multiday adventures.
Our Clients
The majority of our clients are Free Independent Travellers (FITs) that have found us directly. We sell almost all of our trips directly to our customers meaning we are in control of the information they receive and the expectations they have. Our three biggest regions are Kiwis, Ozzie, Americans but we have folks from all over!
For our courses we work with a more local market. This can include incredible and accomplished outdoors people looking to take their adventures to the next level.
For our multi day trips, we're starting to work with some inbound tourism operators bringing small groups.
Positions Available
We want to hire a bit of a mix of guides for the season so the exact combination of guides will depend on the applications we receive. Largely speaking, we will be looking for River Guides who have already gained significant amounts of experience and are ready and able to operate independently, and Apsiring Guides who are perhaps have less experience but are passionate about learning the craft of guiding with us.
River Guides
The nature of our trips means that often you'll be working as a solo guide with small groups. Because of this, we are after guides who have enough experience to get a group and go have an awesome day, keep everyone safe and make good decisions and earn those tips on their own. That's not to say you're always working on your own, but you'll need the ability to.
A typical day might look like:
- Meet at the PRQT base at 7am to pack your van
- Leave to grab fuel and lunches
- Meet clients, sign waivers, drive to the river, text through your intentions for the day to the duty phone.
- Take folks for a hike and paddle and generally have a good time in a fucking stunning office.
- Drive home, text the duty phone to let them know you're out safe.
- Drop off clients
- Wash gear and hang it up to dry
- Crack a beer and count your tips
Aspiring Guides
Essentially it's a very similar position, however, there will be a bit more of a structured training pathway to get you started. We'll put you through Rescue Training and First Aid and start you off shadowing people on day trips. Once you're comfortable with that then opportunities to shadow other trips like whitewater trips or courses will be made available as you fine tune your delivery and discover your guiding style.
It might be that applicants have only a year or two of guiding experience or it might be a career change for someone or even a polytechnic graduate.
The biggest difference is obviously the amount of value you'll get out of working with a more experienced crew, but also the expectation is that our aspiring guides intend to commit for 2 summers. We put a lot more into these members of crew, so the hope is that this guide development is rewarded with a longer stint with us.
Casuals
Again, because of the nature of the work, we understand that some people may like to keep themselves busy with other jobs in addition to the guiding work. A small collection of casual guides is always handy. The expectation is that casuals will need to have the same quals as the rest of the crew (and possibly go through the same training with us to get re-certified) but may only help out on a semi regular or casual basis.
Again, we'd expect casuals to be fully able to run trips on their own if need be and our preference is that we hire locals who understand the industry, the local history etc and will be available for more than a single season.
Who we're looking for
Above all we're looking for passionate professionals looking to join our team. Ideal guides would have enough experience that working without daily supervision (after ample pre-season training) is well within their wheelhouse.
Desired experience would include:
- Solid personal and/or professional experience on the river. Preferably packrafting, but any craft is good experience
- Solid personal and/or professional experience hiking (preferably multi day trips)
- Other outdoors experience such as expeditions or guiding in other fields
Qualifications (can be refreshed if need be during pre-seaon training)
- Current Rescue certificate (such as NZRA or Rescue 3 WRT-Pro)
- Current outdoor first aid (such as PHEC, WFR or WEMT)
- The ability and licenses to drive passengers in manual vehicles off-road .
- Necessary VISA or legal ability to work for the summer in New Zealand.
Anything else that might bring something epic to our team. If you're a freak with spread sheets, if you're weapon with a camera or social media, a McGyver in terms of repairs or have some cadre of epic war stories to regale clients then please DON'T BE SHY IN TELLING US!
Personal Attributes:
- Strong leading attributes
- Phenomenal communication
- Problem solving ability and initiative
- Physically fit
- Nerdish knowledge of Rivers and safety protocols
- Passionate AF about the outdoors
- Patience and empathy
- Team player (this isn't corporate speak for "Don't complain if you're chucked under the bus. We promise)
- Attention to detail and customer service
- Adaptability
- Professionalism
- Strong work ethic
What we offer
Trips go out as bookings come in so the work load will vary, but we aim to keep everyone working 4 days a week to allow for longer weekends for play. Our season starts in October and runs through to April.
- We have a guide accomodation available if needed
- We pay well
- There are a number of pro deals available for guides with local outdoor stores and bars as well as bigger multinational brands like Alpacka, Kokatat, NRS, Watershed.
- Qualifications and career development (even for more experienced guides there will be chance for more interesting and challenging roles and internationally recognised Rescue 3 qualifications).
- Opportunities to contribute in a meaningful way to the team, the culture and the business
- Social trips and expeditions to weird and wonderful places. Often filmed. Sometimes submitted into film fests
The Process
EOI
The journey starts with the Expression of interest form below.
References and Further questions
If you're successfully invited through to the next stage we'll begin reference checks (with your permission) and may have some follow up questions.
Selection weekend
In pervious years we've had a huge response to our vacancies. In these situations we'll likely organise a selection weekend in September or October. This is not designed to put huge amounts of pressure on candidates but more as a way to hang together for an overnight mission in the Rees Valley. You get to know us and we get to know you and we get closer to assembling our team. Worst case scenario, you come have a fun weekend messing around in boats and meeting some cool people.
Crew Training
We'll put on a First Aid Course, a Rescue course and start showing you the rivers and gear etc so you're ready to hit the ground running.
